Intensely familiar - review of Sam Carter

Sam Carter at New Greenham Arts on Friday, June 28, 2013

YOU know when you hear a song played that seems so intensely familiar that there is no way that you haven’t heard it performed live before - possibly more than once? That happened to me with Sam Carter’s Dreams Are Made of Money. It rang such a strong bell that I could picture myself, as  part of an audience, singing along to the chorus. I even told Carter himself after the show, that I must have seen someone else cover his song, but I couldn’t remember who. He had no idea who this could be, simply commenting “ah well, the PRS cheque will still come to me”.

Unfortunately, there will be no Performing Rights Society cheque winging its way through his letterbox on this occasion - after several hours of trying to work it out, I concluded that in fact I had seen Carter himself performing Dreams Are Made of Money on the BBC TV show Later... with Jools Holland last autumn. As me and Jools Holland are not one and the same, I have decided that it is the insane catchiness of this future folk standard that has burrowed it into my mind, and there it will stick forever more.

Carter is fully aware of the compulsive nature of the song’s tune - he first heard it himself performed in its original version as Antioch, a hymn performed acapella by four harmonising voices, while gleaning inspiration for his most recent album, The No Testament, which is partly influenced by the American tradition of shapenote singing. He told the audience that after one hearing of the song, he was unable to shake it from his head, and so reinvented Antioch as a hymn for the modern world.

Whether self-penned, traditional or a mix of both, many of Carter’s songs have tales behind them, often drawn from his more painful life experiences, including rejection in Pheasant (“you flattened me like a pheasant on a country road”) and a disintegrating relationship in She Won’t Hear. It seems like the women in Carter’s life can’t expect a song written about them until the love is gone.

Most personal of all, and stunningly moving, was Here In The Ground, the title song of Carter’s 2008 debut EP, written about the death of Carter’s older sister at the age of three, when he was a toddler. This contrasted with the following song, a cheery little ditty called Lumpy’s Lullaby, written for the child of Carter’s surviving sister while still in utero. Almost certainly entirely lacking in soporific tendencies, it was a sweet reminder of the circle of life, and how it can impact on one family.

As Carter himself quoted on stage (from whom, I can’t remember), “no one lives long enough to write a traditional song”, explaining that a song has to be passed through generations of musicians, changing and developing along the way, before it can be considered “traditional” - and, of course, no one remembers the original composer by then. On the eve of his 30th birthday, and with his BBC Folk Best Newcomer Award three years in the past, it may be that with at least one song (Dreams..., of course), and possibly with more, both written and unwritten, Carter has confirmed his place as a composer of future folk standards. Let’s hope that his name is remembered for them.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, July 4, 2013

Smooth as selkie - review of Lady Maisery at New Greenham Arts

Lady Maisery at New Greenham Arts, Greenham, on Thursday, May 23

 WHAT do you mean you haven’t heard of the bansitar? It’s a musical instrument that combines the sound of a sitar with the tuning and playing technique of a banjo. And do you know what diddling is? It’s a style of singing without words, once common in England, used to create music for dancing without the need for instruments. OK then, how about a bit of clog dancing? You don’t see much of it round these parts, but the tradition continues in the north of England, where it grew up around the factories and workhouses.

Lady Maisery is an all-female trio, Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowen Rheingan, who all grew up steeped in the folk tradition and performing from an early age, before coming together to form a harmony group focussing on the vocal traditions of Britain and further afield, with Scandinavian, Celtic and Appalachian songs also getting a look in.

The general cheeriness of Lady Maisery’s performance - and of the often upbeat tunes - contrasts with the themes that pop up regularly in their songs, particularly those on their newly-released second album Mayday, which intentionally scrutinises the human (and often female) struggle for power and equality.

And thus, thought-provoking modern folk songs such as The Crow On The Cradle by Jackson Browne and Palaces Of Gold (inspired by the Aberfan disaster) by Leon Rosselson were performed alongside old songs about honour-based murder, illegitimate births (covered up by Scottish songs of selkies - fabled man-seals - making night time visitations), and the importance of clinging on to that precious “maidenhood”.

Even West Berkshire resident Kate Bush got a look-in, with a particularly lovely interpretation of her song This Women’s Work, a song about childbirth sung from the partner’s viewpoint, which Lady Maisery originally recorded as a charity single to celebrate International Women’s Day. 

Some of the lyrical vibes may have been a bit on the heavy side, but Lady Maisery’s performance certainly was not. The trio were warm and engaging, their harmonies gorgeous, and their between-song chats both enlightening and often mood-lightening. The vocal focus of their performance blended with their other musical abilities, playing the fiddle, banjo, harp, accordion and concertina.

Oh yes - and then there’s the diddling. There’s something innately cheery about diddling. You can’t listen to a diddle and not smile, even if it comes straight off the back of a song about death - their sign-off song, Sleep On Beloved, isn’t just about someone having a snooze. But however chilling and stark some of Lady Maisery’s songs may be, it’s nothing that a diddle and a little bit of clogging can’t solve.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on May 30, 2013

Half the Benn he used to be - review of Mitch Benn

Mitch Benn at New Greenham Arts, on Friday, April 5

MUSICAL comedian Mitch Benn is half the man he used to be. Well, very nearly - he lost 10 stone (from a peak of 25st) on an intense diet in 2011, and has kept most of it off. And so, his current tour, Reduced Circumstances, based on his Edinburgh show of the same name, is inspired by his fight to overcome that least rock & roll of addictions - food.

The tour’s name also refers to it being Benn’s first solo tour, without his usual live backing duo The Distractions, and involves a little more conversation and less singing than his past performances. Armed just with a teeny tiny guitar and an iPhone looper app, Benn partly moved away from his usual social commentary to delve deep into his psyche and explore why he had an urge to overeat, although he concluded that it was not down to a traumatic childhood or the fault of his parents “which was a relief to them when they came to see the show”.

Benn didn’t spend the entire show navel gazing - Reduced Circumstances also references the current state of the nation, and his cheeky musings on the subject ranged from the insightful - comparing the banking crisis to his daughter learning to walk - “she was fine until she noticed that nothing was holding her up” - via the educational, in the form of a rap about quantum mechanics; to the delightfully silly, such as his new song Bouncy Druids, inspired by the full-size blow-up Stonehenge featured in the Olympic opening ceremony.

As a stalwart of BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show, Benn composes songs at short notice to reflect the week’s news, but while expressing a little disappointment that the show is currently off-air, he chose  to keep last week’s biggest event on the down-low, other than a comment on the BBC’s decision not to play the Wizard Of Oz song in full was “making a political statement which playing it would not have been”.

As one of the BBC’s most vocal supporters, as showcased in his epic list-song I’m Proud of the BBC, Benn was clearly frustrated that the corporation had bowed to pressure on this occasion. But what has baffled him most about the world in recent times has been the response of some of his larger fans to his weight loss, who have expressed feelings of betrayal. “I didn’t do it to be smug, I just wanted to see my daughters grow up,” he explained. “It was a case of breaking their (the fans) hearts, or literally breaking mine.” 

Aesthetic improvements may be solely a by-product of the health benefits of Benn’s weight loss, but with his twinkling blue eyes, he is looking damn fine these days, and still has a good pair of lungs on him. Reduced Circumstances may be a departure from the performance norm for Benn, but (along with a forthcoming science fiction novel), it suggests a career longevity beyond a back catalogue of current affairs songs, which owing to their very nature, are bound to have a limited shelf life.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, April 11, 2013

Geek love - review of Matt Parker

Matt Parker: The Number Ninja, at New Greenham Arts, Greenham on Saturday, March 9

IT is the sign of the high level of nerdiness and geekery that my plus-one for mathematician Matt Parker’s first solo stand up comedy/maths show wore a “Klein bottle” hat, knitted from a pattern created by Parker’s mum to his specifications. For those who need a reminder, the Klein bottle is a non-orientable two-dimensional manifold; like a Mobius strip without surface boundaries. And it makes a surprisingly wearable hat.

Parker is a former maths teacher and current academic who led the way with the whole science + laughter = massive fun formula when he combined his day job with his evening semi-pro career in stand-up comedy. Although his live shows, and appearances on Radio 4’s Infinite Monkey Cage do appeal to self-styled nerds whose brains are very nearly too enormous to be housed by a Klein bottle hat, his clear and enthusiastic insights into the weirder side of maths are accessible to nearly all.

The show was a gathering of maths with the wow-factor, such as the amazing and unexpected shapes created by cutting Mobius strips in half, how the heptagrin is the perfect shape for a pizza slice (it also makes a fab skirt),  the non-transitive Grime dice, which will always beat (or lose) to each other, and hefty use of  self-referential meta-ness.

He also shone a light on the concept of coincidence, proving how there is nothing that coincidental about a couple discovering that they were unintentionally captured in the same photograph in a random location as children (although it is still pretty spooky - and I know a married couple it happened to); and how the triangulation of leylines between Stone Age monuments works as well with those ancient temples of consumerism known as “Woolworths”.

The only part of the show where I completely lost my way was during Parker’s explanation of the application of the largest number that has every been put to applied use in human history. Parker used the X Factor as a way of explaining it, but it was still too enormous a concept for me to grasp, with Parker speeding up with his extrapolation as the number got larger and larger; stopping, thankfully, just before my head actually exploded. 

During the interval I heard a group of audience members commenting that it wasn’t “so much comedy as [Parker] pointing out things”. When I put that to him after the show, Parker retorted “well, that’s what Michael McIntyre does...” I think out of the two, if I’m going to have stuff pointed out to me, I’d prefer it to have meaning. But don’t just take my word for it. Carry out your own research, and review the evidence. If we all welcome a little bit more maths into our lives, things can only get meta...

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on March 14, 2013

Straight outta Cowley - review of Stornoway

Stornoway at New Greenham Arts, Greenham on Monday, February 18

NOT actually from the Isle of Lewis as the name suggests but in fact formed in Oxford (they clearly considered it a more atmospheric name than “Cowley”; Stornoway are on the more interesting end of the spectrum of the new folk rock sound so often drowned out by the likes of the ubiquitous Mumford &  Sons. For a start, they have a saw-on-woodblock combo as a percussion instrument, and a large metal cylinder that gets bashed to oblivion. And - possibly most pleasingly - a lot less banjo.

As the first band to be allowed a standing gig at New Greenham Arts, Stornoway conquered the Monday night blues to attract a sell-out crowd, the largest probably seen on the former USAF air base since the Prodigy played in one of the old aircraft hangers in the mid-90s.

They may not have visited their remote namesake town until 2010, but Stornoway’s sound is certainly evocative of the windswept Outer Hebrides: lush layers of music sweep and soar before being stripped back to a soundscape of near-bleakness for acoustic moments and even acapella singing. There are two sets of brothers in the band, and the phenomenon of sibling harmony that arises from a shared vocal timbre is a string to Stornoway’s bow.

A slight naive tilt to some of the lyrics of songwriter and frontman Brian Briggs grated a little with the overall maturity of Stornoway’s music. For the otherwise gorgeous Farewell Appalachia!  Briggs appears to have imbibed a thesaurus of countryside terms: Through the scree at the foot of the bluff/  And I drank from the brook/ And I slept in the lee of the wood. And the line in their UK number four chart hit, Zorbing, “I feel like I just started uni” just makes me feel a bit old.

Aside from traumatising some audience members (ie me) with the realisation that at least some of these immensely talented “songsmiths, scholars, scientists and men of the earth” are young enough to be my offspring, Stornoway attracted a wonderfully wide spread of ages to NGA, and the ability of this band and their ilk to induct a new generation into the folk genre deserves a generous doff of the cap.

And anyway - any band that can produce a song as lovely as The Coldharbour Road can be forgiven a few duff lyrics along the way.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 5, 2013

Be Young, be foolish, be Gabby - review of Gabby Young & Other Animals

Gabby Young & Other Animals at New Greenham Arts on Saturday, February 9. 2013

THE GENRE purveyed - and arguably invented - by Gabby Young is described as Circus Swing; and while this comes from its gypsy-style musical roots (a heady mix of Eastern European and English folk, with a hefty dose of swing jazz), Young’s stunning visual appearance and the party mood provided by her performance brings all the fun of the big top to the stage. If you visited Gifford’s Circus during its summer sojourn in Victoria Park, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The “Other Animals” menagerie was stripped down to a trio for Young’s sell-out New Greenham New Folk performance, with Young’s powerful classically-trained voice being accompanied by guitarist and pianist (and partner) Stephen Ellis, and violinist Milly McGregor. It may have been a small gathering of musicians, but the sound was anything but stripped down - who needs a brass section when you’ve got kazoos?

Wiltshire-born Young’s flamboyant visual persona has received media attention, and she has fun with it - she  has her own internet boutique, called Gabberdashery, and a previous tour saw the Other Animals performing in her favourite vintage clothes shops. The band’s on stage party mood is irresistible, and they soon had the seated audience singing, clapping and stomping along, bringing a summer festival mood to the New Greenham auditorium on a February evening.

Young’s songs are strong and beautiful, and unlike some funtime festival bands, they transfer perfectly to album (the other animals have released two to date; with 2012’s And The Band Called For More being contained in a stunning petal-fold sleeve, worth the money alone purely for presentation). Not all songs are upbeat party numbers, and many appear to be very personal in their sentiment, but all are performed in Young’s powerful yet velvet-smooth voice that grabs and holds you from beginning to end. Think of Florence & The Machine with a sense of humour, and you’re halfway there.

A gorgeous treat for at least two of the senses, Gabby Young & Other Animals are a must-see if they pop up at any festival you might be at this summer. And certainly grab your tickets quickly if Young visits these parts again. I’m hoping that next time, she brings enough kazoos for the entire audience.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on February 14, 2013

Piff, paff, puff - review of Piff the Magic Dragon

Piff the Magic Dragon at New Greenham Arts, Newbury on Thursday, November 8, 2012

IS he a magician? Is he a comedian? No... Piff is a dragon. The clue is in the name. Durrr.

He’s a rather grumpy dragon as it happens: emotionally scarred by his ex-wife; a petulant assistant on community service, and a love-hate relationship with sidekick Mr Piffles, an adorable Chihuahua, who gets far more attention than poor beleaguered Piff. And don’t mention his famous older brother - Steve. Sore point, that one.

Piff (real name John Van der Put - that took a bit of Googling to find out) performs magic mainly with two aims - firstly, to snare his very own princess (the dream of all dragons) by submitting an audience member to various fairy tale challenges, and secondly, to subject Mr Piffles to any number of death-inevitable stunts without invalidating his life insurance.

Piff is pretty good at the old magic thing, particularly when it comes to card and close-up tricks - as anyone who saw him attempting (and only just failing) to fool Penn & Teller on their ITV show could testify. He can also make the ever-obliging Mr Piffles disappear, and then resurrect him as a two-dimensional postable version.

But it’s the incongruous combination of his dragon get-up and a deadpan comedic style that makes Piff a little bit special. The children’s entertainer veneer of his act seems to make audience members particularly willing to participate both on stage and off, and even add to the comedy with their own responses to the whimsy. However, this is by no means a children’s act, with Piff having a distinct dark side as he enacts revenge on his ex-wife, and treats both Mr Piffles and stroppy assistant Amy Sunshine with weary disdain.

Piff didn’t find his princess in New Greenham Arts; his quest continues. If you see him on his travels, you’re welcome to give the delightful Mr Piffles a pat on the head - but do give Piff a little tickle under the chin as well. Dragons thrive on the attention. 

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on November 15, 2012

A teensy bit tame - review of Seann Walsh and Josh Widdicombe

Newbury Comedy Festival: Seann Walsh - Seann To Be Wild, and Josh Widdicombe - Further Adventures Of... at New Greenham Arts on Thursday, July 10

I’VE had Seann Walsh on my to-do list for quite a while, but I can’t quite remember why - I probably saw him on a television panel show and was charmed by his easy wit and lovely hair.

But there was something ever so slightly “meh” about the preview of his Edinburgh Fringe show, Seann To Be Wild, at New Greenham Arts last Thursday. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it for a couple of days - it was a reasonably slick performance (taking into account that it was a show in-preparation), there was definitely some funny stuff in there and the material fitted well with the theme (Walsh’s love of alcohol and exploits while drinking).

And then, while watching Alexei Sayle’s book reading at The Corn Exchange on Saturday, a comment made by Sayle about today’s stand-up scene made perfect sense. Preparing for a return to stand-up after a 16 year hiatus, the godfather of alternative comedy immersed himself in the current comedy scene, and concluded that while stand-up comics of today are prepared to reveal all sorts of intimate information about themselves, today’s taboo subject seems to be politics. Sayle’s opinion is that the 21st century UK comedy scene’s world view is a generally nihilistic one, with few comics delving deeper than a Mock The Week level of lampooning of the state of affairs.

And so it was with Walsh - and, to a certain extent, Josh Widdicombe as well, whose material, about the little annoyances and confusions of life (the backstories to boardgames for example) was wider ranging, and so hit more targets than Walsh’s drinking tales, but it just wasn’t that memorable. I am aware that one issue with preparing an Edinburgh show is that the performers have to submit their show title, and even the blurb about it, months before the event, and thus before they have even written it, meaning that their material has to then be tailored to the title, which is probably not going to be an approach that works well for everyone.

I don’t mean to come across as damning here; both Walsh and Widdicombe are very able comics, with the sort of able humour which works excellently on television shows and a confidence in their ability which could see them go far. Theirs is the sort of safe-but-funny comedy which goes down well on a wide scale, and I wouldn’t be surprised if either or both of them make it as big as the likes of Russell Howard and Michael MacIntyre. Nothing to set the world on fire; but two secure pairs of hands.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, July 19, 2012

Bunker down - review of Comedy Bunker featuring Naz Osmanoglu and Tom Deacon

The New Greenham Comedy Bunker at New Greenham Arts on Thursday, February 16

TAKING place in the auditorium at New Greenham Arts rather than the nearby bunkers that formerly housed cruise missiles, Comedy Bunker was a mini-Jongleurs featuring three acts from the Avalon Entertainment arsenal - compere Naz Osmanoglu (above: isn't he scrummy?), female character stand-up Grainne Maguire, and a headline set from Radio One DJ-stroke-comedian Tom Deacon.

Twenty-five-year-old Deacon wore great hair and those strange trendy trousers that young types have started sporting - sludgy colours, baggy around the top, slim around the ankle. I learnt from his act, which partly centred on the dilemma of looking cool or otherwise that such slacks are officially known as chinos, but they don’t look like the military-style chinos I remember from my youth. These ones are just silly. Although at least those who wear them don’t have their pants on show. Anyway, despite the clear generation gap between Deacon and the majority of the audience, his act went down a storm. I think all women in the audience wanted to mother him, and all the men remembered when they had hair as luxuriant as his.

Stunning Irishwoman Maguire hid behind a geeky persona and costume of nerd glasses, laddered tights, wonky hemline and ill-fitting jumper, meaning it was hard to tell if her slight awkwardness at the beginning was genuine or part of the act. Things warmed up towards the end with a good take on the likes of Beyonce making a curvy derriere fashionable again, with a song dedicated to the female belly, culminating in a intentionally disturbing Pussycat Dolls-style writhe against the mic stand. Don’t tell her mum that she’s dropped the Beowulf material, though.

It’s always a challenge to review a compere as their main purpose is to warm up the audience through ad-libbed interaction rather than to provide material in their own right - the handsomely-bearded Osmanoglu did a very good job; but to be honest I’d be much more interested in seeing him return to Newbury with his comedy troupe WitTank, after they received glowing reviews and a place on the Fosters Comedy Award longlist at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. With co-member Kieran Boyd hailing from Caversham, I think that needs to be sorted out, sharpish. I want to see that beard again. 

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, February 23, 2012

I love Cox - review of Chris Cox

Chris Cox: Fatal Distraction, at New Greenham Arts on Friday, October 7

I’M a sucker for a freebie, but I’d like to make it clear that the free “I Love Cox” button badge given to me will not be influencing this review. They were given out to the entire audience, and it would have been churlish to refuse. Anyway, I don’t think us Newbury Weekly News reviews have a “declared interests” obligation - if we did, I would also have to admit that my sister was one of the audience members selected to participate in the show. Chris Cox did indeed read her mind magnificently - but then, I consider her particular easy to read. I’ve been able to do it for years.

Oh yes, and I got a hug from Cox after the show. But in no way does a hug from a handsome young man implant in me the urge to write a positive review. Promise. The thoughts below are all my own... I think.

“A mind reader who can’t read minds” (also a BBC Radio 1 producer - and still in his 20s), Cox’s show had a lovely conceit, built around the poignant tale of a girlfriend found by fate and lost by harsh reality, with many of his tricks allowing audience members to build up a picture of his dream girl as his performance progressed. Often items from a cluttered bookcase were used in the act - but I’m sure that some of them were there to influence our train of thoughts during the show, and possibly into the future (since Friday I have had an unexplainable urge to see the RSC production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda).

The problem with writing about magic-style acts early on in their tour, particularly with local-ish dates to come (Swindon Arts Centre on November 12 and the Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot on November 25) is that revealing too much about the performance could spoil things for readers spurred on by a glowing review to book tickets. So to a certain extent, you’ll have to trust me on this. Cox is fab. Slick, charismatic, confident and extremely likeable. Think about what Derren Brown might do if he had a smaller stage and a broken heart.

Oh yes, I think I can safely mention that prior to the show Cox had memorised last week’s edition of the Newbury Weekly News in its entirety, proved by audience members calling out page numbers. I’m not sure even our illustrious editor would be able to pull that one off (go on Brien, tell us what’s on page 44).

I for one will be wearing my “I Love Cox” badge with pride, and it is entirely my own choice to do so. I think.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, October 13, 2011

So good, I bought the T-shirt - review of Frisky and Mannish

 

Frisky and Mannish: Popcentre Plus at New Greenham Arts, on Thursday, October 6

I HAVE a confession about Frisky and Mannish: after seeing them perform on BBC Three’s Edinburgh Fringe showcase, I dismissed them as “a bit pants” and knowing that their Newbury date was one of several I was reviewing that week, I was ready to jack in my ticket. But then, friends and family started raving about having heard them on the radio, so I thought I might as well tag along and see who was right - me, or four of my nearest and dearest.

Reader, I loved them so much, I bought the T-shirt. Literally. Got it signed on the back as well. Having spoken to the mum of another participant in the BBC Three showcase (I am now of an age where I don’t know the bright young things, but I do know their parents), it appears that Frisky and Mannish weren’t the only act who struggled to wow as they should without the bangs and whizzes of their own production arena.

That’s not to say that this comedic musical duo are nothing without their effects buttons, as Frisky & Mannish - aka Oxford University graduates Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones  - are seriously talented singers and performers. It is surprising to learn after the show that neither have much formal training in the performing arts arena. Corcoran in particular is a virtuoso vocalist who can switch her powerful voice between pastiches of Madonna (in her many incarnations), Adele and Ellie Golding  among others, with graceful ease.

The Popcentre Plus concept of the Frisky and Mannish show was a workshop for would-be popstars, with education - the “revelations” that Rhianna’s Rude Boy was written by the Bee Gees and that Florence & the Machine’s songs are recycled late 90s pop; enlightenment - that any song can fit the grime genre (think N-Dubz), even The Carpenters’ On Top Of The World; and dire warnings of “Good Girl[s] Gone Bad”, those teeny boppers who grow up to find their sexy side.

There was great fun to be had in the audience participation as we were divided into the Elvis Presleys (singers), Britneys (dancers), Razorlights (great hair), Biebers (no discernible talent) and Greg (so fabulous, only one name needed). This culminated in the formation of a new boyband on stage, given the moniker The Other Direction, and obliged to perform a Take That standard to the best of their abilities.

Even the song that had been my BBC Three bugbear - a version of Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground, with lyrics changed to the words of nursery rhymes (“the wheels on the bus go round and round”) worked fabulously in the context of the show. With their performance of their Kate Bush/ Kate Nash mash-up during the Fringe coverage leading me to comment “that would have been so funny five years ago”, I was concerned that with the fast pace of pop music, some of their act would have already dated. As it turns out, it was me who couldn’t always keep up with them; having to check with my younger sister who a certain song belonged to (it was Jessie J) proved that.

With their fingers on the musical pulse of the moment, Frisky and Mannish turn the glitzy world of throwaway pop into something to be cherished through pastiche, satire, and lots of laughs. They have already sold out their two dates at Reading’s South Street later this month, but there are still a very few tickets left for Swindon Arts Centre on December 20. And remember - if you have great hair, you too can be a chart topper. Just ask the boys from Razorlight.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, October 13, 2011

I fought the Law... and the Law won - review of Tony Law

Tony Law at New Greenham Arts, on Thursday, September 22

I SAW the Marmite effect in action at Tony Law’s show last Thursday - I loved him, my plus-one hated him, and we could see the rest of the audience split among similar lines into the laughs and laugh-nots.

Well, “hated” is too strong a word, as Law’s surreal deconstruction of the craft of comedy didn’t elicit the barely-concealed anger with which my companion (a different chap) responded to a performance by Wil Hodgson during the Newbury Comedy Festival a few years ago. But barely a smile was raised from this particular guest last week, while I was more than happy to relax and enjoy the magical mystery tour of Law’s mindwarping musings.

Law dresses like a 19th century polar explorer (the only surviving one, he propounded, to be doing stand up comedy; the others having formed the bands Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons), sounds like a lumberjack (he is indeed, Canadian), and picks apart his own act using the schtick that he isn’t a terribly skilled comedian, when actually he quite clearly is as savvy as they come.

Law’s themes are fairly random, although nature pop up in some of its strangest forms throughout the show - who would win a fight between a shark and a bear (you have to paint the shark as a salmon to get the bought started), adopting a prostitute panda, and how trees are great gossips. His self-styling as a “dangerous” comedian was applied with a reasonable dose of irony, but his act certainly never fell below the bar of “mild peril”. Law appeared fully aware that his performance was likely to divide his audience, a risk raised exponentially by the smallish turn-out for his Newbury gig. This didn’t seem to worry him - in fact, I rather suspect that he revels in such diverse reactions.

I suppose some of the appeal (for those, like me, that do laugh at him) is that audience members can feel awfully smug and clever if they “get” him, over those that don’t. Whereas those that don’t laugh are in fact more confident in their own intelligence, and therefore don’t need the validation. I don’t care - I’m quite happy to be made to feel clever, so Law’s act works for me, and so yah-boo to those erudite brainy types who can rise above such ingenious verbal trickery.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, September 29, 2011

    

Curiouser and curiouser... - review of Robert Bone

Robert Bone: Demonstrator of Extra-Sensory Curiosities, at New Greenham Arts, Newbury, on Wednesday, September 7

MAGIC, feats of memory, achievements of mind over matter and hypnotic suggestion: Robert Bone, a professional magician and mindreader from Brimpton, crammed it all in to his 90 minute show and pulled it off with aplomb as he expanded his close-up magic and mind reading skills for a wider, and far larger audience at New Greenham Arts.

More used to performing his trickery while mingling with guests at social events, it was impressive that this was Bone’s first performance of his full-length show. He demonstrated well-filled arsenal of skills and techniques allowed him to bombard the audience with prestiges that virtually all hit their intended targets.

Particularly striking was his ability to sense objects while blindfolded with gaffer tape, slowing his pulse dramatically - verified by a midwife in the house - and demonstrating a memory feat by remembering specific words from three different books held by members of the audience.

Participants were selected at random to take part in various on-stage activities, including having their body language read to select the liar amongst truth-tellers, and selecting certain cards and letters, and having their hands glued together through hypnotic suggestion.

Of course it is impossible to write about this type of act without referencing master mentalist Derren Brown, a mention that Bone is unlikely to mind, as he quotes him on his poster. Similarly to Brown’s stage shows, Bone’s performance followed an arc, with all the set pieces being tied up nicely in the finale.

Dressed in a dapper three-piece suit, Bone had a delightfully affable air that appeared to make his participants feel relaxed, and an easy charm. It was a lovely, warm show, and while Bone may not yet have all the sparkle of a polished Vegas performer, he has a quirky persona that deserves to be seen by a larger audience than wedding guests. Saying that, his success as a wedding performer paid off on the night, as the audience included couples who had come to support him in his new venture.

Bone’s transition from magician-for-hire to stage performer deserves to be a success, and it can be hoped that his debut show, which was filmed for a showreel, leads on to exciting opportunities. And no - he didn’t hypnotise me to make sure I wrote nice things about him. At least, I don’t think he did...

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, September 15, 2011

Out on his Moloney - review of John Moloney

Newbury Comedy Festival: John Moloney at New Greenham Arts, Newbury, on Saturday, July 23

NEWBURY Comedy Festival has been a most civilised affair this year. Spread comfortably over 20 days, it has included big names (Mark Watson and Rory Bremner),  delightful treats (Running On Air, performed to an audience of five in a campervan), the welcome return of old favourites (Clare Plested) and slightly baffling performance poetry (You Look Like Ants). There was even a pleasing last-minute addition in the form of Dave Gorman, previewing his Edinburgh Fringe Powerpoint Presentation at New Greenham Arts on Thursday (I did see it, but he doesn’t want reviews - I think it’s alright to say that it was rather excellent, though).

And so, eventually, the comedy festival drew to an end on Saturday, with two seasoned performers - Joe Pasquale at The Corn Exchange, and John Moloney at New Greenham Arts. Moloney’s performance was a warm-up before returning to Edinburgh Fringe for a short run with his 2010 show Butterflies With Stretchmarks; an opportunity to ensure that he remembered it all (it looked like he did), and to bring it up to date with some relevant topical asides.

Butterflies With Stretchmarks was a lovely, gentle monologue focussing on the small things in life. From the noise his cat made when the vet surprised it with a thermometer (“Maugh”. Moloney spelt it for us.) to minute observations remembered from earlier life experiences out on the pull (hence the title of the show - it refers to tattoos), Moloney wove the mundanity of the everyday into a word painting, and left the audience well alone to relax into the evening without fear of reprisal.

There was nothing earth-shattering about the subject matter of Moloney’s whimsical musings, but his delivery was pure craftsmanship; the creation of a comedian who has spent years honing his work. A former German teacher, Moloney’s love of language and linguistics is central to his performance (and also elicits the trivia gem that the German word for nipples translates as “breast warts"). When the even the scatological and the curmudgeonly is transformed into poetry, you know that you’re in the safe hands of a comedy journeyman who is fully at ease in his work.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News, Thursday, July 28, 2011

Intimate experiences - review of Laura Mugridge, Running On Air, and Stuart Silver, You Look Like Ants

Newbury Comedy Festival: Running On Air, at The Corn Exchange, Newbury on Tuesday, July 12, and You Look Like Ants, at New Greenham Arts, Newbury on Thursday, July 14

PROVING that Newbury Comedy Festival isn’t just about the big names and television faces, two smaller shows in town this week also demonstrated that sometimes comedy doesn’t just have to embrace the big laughs - sometimes it  can also be life-affirming,  heartwarming, thought-provoking and mind-expanding.

Fitting the first of those two descriptions very nicely was Running On Air - not performed in The Corn Exchange itself, but out the front, inside the vintage VW campervan called Joni owned by comedian Laura Mugridge. With an audience capacity of five, the setting takes both the concepts of “intimate” and “audience participation” to a new level, with singing, tape deck control, spice jar percussion and the obligation of someone to take on the role of Mugridge’s husband all required as we cosied up together.

Mugridge’s Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning tale was heartffelt and true, exploring her ambivalence between life as a touring comedian and the draw of her life at home, with a new husband and the desire to start a family. Touring and performing in her beloved-but-temperamental Joni, she explained, was her compromise, taking part of her home with her on the road - although from her tales of myriad breakdowns (both car and owner) it’s possibly not turned out to be the most stress-free way of solving her dilemma.

Her warm conversational style and the delightfully strange setting made for a memorable experience, although sometimes it was easy to forget it was a performance, and the rhetorical questions weren’t there to be answered. “Have children now!” I wanted to say. “It’s never the right time! Just do it!”. But I didn’t. I knew my place, and that place was to play the swanee whistle to indicate falling temperatures (apparently I do an excellent “sad face”). And anyway, much as the campervan may be loved by Mugridge, her unreliability may mean that she would not be the ideal family getabout. I suspect Mugridge may need a little longer with Joni before she moves on to another kind of baby.

You Look LIke Ants, presented by writer-performer Stuart Silver was a philosophical, poetic performance piece, accompanied by Silver’s own virtuosic playing of the electric ukulele. Intriguing, hypnotic, and wavering throughout between amusing and bizarre, this was a balladic search for the meaning of life through the advice of others, with intertwined storylines featuring the most unlikely of characters, including Richard & Judy, Mark Knopfler and a talking rabbit. I will never listen to Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms again without thinking of Silver’s ukulele and that rabbit.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, July 21, 2011

Flights of fantasy - review of SLY Theatre, Kes

Kes, by SLY Theatre, at New Greenham Arts on Tuesday, June 28 and Wednesday, June 29

I REMEMBER writing a story for the Newbury Weekly News about the launch of Shining Lights Youth (SLY) Theatre back in 1999, so it’s great to see the company still going strong, resident at New Greenham Arts, and having seen alumni move on to professional work, such as Alec Hopkins, who played the young Severus Snape in the fifth Harry Potter film.

The aim of SLY is to produce drama that challenges both its members and audiences, and it certainly did so with its latest production, based on the classic novel A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines. Transposing the story 15 years forward from its source material to the early 1980s brought in extra elements of tension into the action - rudderless juvenile delinquent Billy Casper’s taking of the fledging kestrel from its nest would have been a criminal act after the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act, while his future looked even more hopeless with the added knowledge that the steady-but-dull employment  lined up for him at the mine would not be a job for life after all.

Keeping the action in Yorkshire was an opportunity for the 10 actors to face the challenge of the regional accent and dialect, which they did so with great dedication. Indeed, the entire performance was an intense experience, as the entire cast were in camera at virtually all times, constantly fluttering the pages of books (possibly copies of A Kestrel For A Knave - I couldn’t tell from my seat) and watching Elliot Laker as Billy intensely, their eyes forever following him as he immersed us in the teenager’s isolated and misunderstood life.

With the story focused around Billy’s relationship with Kes, the young kestrel he tames and trains, another challenge for the company was representing the raptor, which they did with feathered set dressings and lighting which stained the feathers with a flash of red when Billy discovered Kes’ body.

The ensemble cast each took on several roles, creating excellent character pen portraits in their walks and mannerisms, such as Anna Roberts’ prim librarian, Natalie Poernig as both Billy’s careworn mother and his caring teacher Miss Farthing, and Conor Holt as Jud, the jack-the-lad older brother whose immature reaction to a perceived slighting resulted in the destruction of both the bird and Billy’s hope. All involved in SLY can be proud of this stylish, affecting and powerful production, which retained both the bleakness and dark humour of the source text.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, July 7, 2011

Rouse! Rouse! - review of Rob Rouse

Rob Rouse at New Greenham Arts, Newbury on Saturday, May 14

AS eager to please as Ronnie, his over-friendly mongrel featured on film to start the show, comedian Rob Rouse bounded onto the stage full of the joys of spring to tell the tale of The Great Escape - the upping of his family’s sticks from London to the Peak District. The move proved to be a fertile source of material for Rouse, as characterful neighbours and the local wildlife welcomed his family with open arms and a lot more besides.

From a neighbour grateful that Ronnie had slaughtered his chickens because it “saved him a job” to lively pensioners Bill and Margaret, stories of village life blossomed in the telling, mulched up with the joys of family life with a potty-training toddler and long-suffering partner. Former geography teacher Rouse explained that as he embraced the joys of country living he took on the challenge of living off the land, in particular taking his obsession with roadkill to extremities beyond the comfort zone of his vegetarian girlfriend. 

As warm and comforting as nettle soup and packed full of gently exaggerated anecdotes and insights into the skill of “contact technique parking” (“you don’t need parking sensors, that’s what the bumpers are for”), the two hour-plus show flew by with no obvious padding from its original 60 minute Edinburgh Fringe format. I particularly loved the Polish-“speaking” dog, patiently retrained to understand English commands (“teaching its new owners four or five key Polish words didn’t seem to have been considered”) and a wedding reception where Rouse discovered that the villagers knew how to enjoy themselves with an iPhone.

The show built up to an extended denouement involving the rotting corpse of a roadkilled sheep in Rouse’s car boot, during which the suspensions of reality were stretched to snapping point. The believability may not have held throughout, but overall, Rouse’s performance was a breath of fresh country air.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, May 19, 2011

Bridging the gap - review of Paul Chowdhry

Blogger: The Smudge - Edit Post "Bridging the gap"

Paul Chowdhry at New Greenham Arts, Newbury on Wednesday, April 27

BRITISH-Indian comedian Paul Chowdhry got a surprise when he walked on stage at New Greenham Arts, commenting “this is the whitest audience I’ve ever had” - although the dedication of his Asian fans was demonstrated by some having travelled from as far as Southampton for the initial date of his first national tour.

Already well-known among the Asian community, Chowdhry has a number of catchphrases that his fans clearly loved, but meant that it took a while for those unfamiliar with his work to get fully up to speed with his hard-hitting style.

However, once proceedings were fully warmed up, Chowdhry proved to be a most interesting and entertaining comedian, with a show that touched on issues of racism, ignorance, generation gaps and miscommunication, demonstrating that it is possible for people from every culture to laugh at themselves and each other if there is mutual respect and appreciation.

Apart from some misjudged off-the-cuff jokes aimed at a couple in the audience about the man giving his partner a “slap” - taken good-naturedly by the targets, but touching on a theme which I don’t think should ever play a part in a comedy show - Chowdhry balanced his rehearsed material well with audience interaction. He also demonstrated a talent for mimicry and threw out some cracking one-liners - “The Royal Wedding will have 1,900 guests attending. That’s just one side of the family at an Indian wedding”.

An unintentionally funny moment arose when Chowdhry accidentally referred to the “Newbury Gazette”, resulting in several heckles of “Nooo, it’s the Newbury Weekly News” from different parts of the room. “Now I know what really upsets you,” commented Chowdhry. That’s right - it’s not jokes about the BNP membership helpline being run from India that rises the hackles of a Newbury audience - it’s not getting the name of the local newspaper correct. I think he felt suitably chastened.

Chowdhry’s Not PC national tour may herald the start of him hitting the mainstream, but I get the feeling that he won’t be prepared to compromise his act for the comfort of a wider audience.  Don’t expect to see him chatting on Alan Titmarsh’s sofa any time soon, but certainly try to catch him live if you get the chance.

* Paul Chowdhry will be at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon on June 8 and The Forge at The Anvil in Basingstoke on June 23.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, May 5 2011

It's just not cricket - review of Miles Jupp

Miles Jupp - Fibber In The Heat, at New Greenham Arts, Newbury, on Thursday, March 10

HAVING been rather burnt by an uncomfortable evening spent in the company of Will Hodgson and his disconcerting tales of a childhood being bullied, I tend to shy away from storytelling comedians, so it was probably rather fortuitous that I hadn’t done my advance research and twigged that Miles Jupp’s show was one long tale surrounding the England cricket team’s 2006 tour of India.

Inspired mainly in my attendance by my fondness for Jupp’s character Archie the Inventor in the CBeebies series Balamory, I was aware that the actor also performed stand-up comedy, but I hadn’t expected him to combine the two in such a well-told based-on-a-true story of dreams achieved and thwarted, as Jupp described how, jaded with his acting career and buoyed by England’s success in the 2005 Ashes, he made it his aim to break into the world of cricket journalism.

Blagging his way into the press pack with vague promises of some piecework for BBC Scotland and Swansea’ s Western Mail (who were only interested in anything to do with Welsh cricketer Simon Jones - who was injured before the first match), Jupp soon discovered he was well out of his depth among a group of experienced hacks and legendary players-turned-pundits. and by the end of the month-long tour had concluded that there’s no such thing as a dream job, you should never get too close to your heroes, and the view from the press box isn’t all that special.

The joy in the performance was in Jupp’s turn of phrase as he staggered from one disastrous event to the next; trying to avoid sunburn from the glare bounced directly off the pitch into the press box, and attempting to resemble the photograph on the illicit press pass handed to him when his own promised one didn’t transpire. Even the scatological was so eloquently put as to transform a description of a nasty dose of Delhi belly into a voyage of self-discovery, as Jupp realised he had taken on more than he could chew - and not just from the roadside food stall he had stopped at for an ill-advised snack.

Jupp’s trip to India may have been ultimately doomed in terms of turning him onto a new career path, but among the tales of mishaps, loneliness and uncertainty there was an element of triumph in the audacity of his attempts to follow his dream, and his realisation that as a fan of anything there’s no better place than to be among other fans, revelling in the thrill and vibrancy of a crowd enjoying the escapism of an experience that is a million miles away from their day job, whatever that may be.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 17, 2011

G'Osho, it's Andi! - Andi Osho review

IT would be interesting to know what comedian Andi Osho thinks of David Cameron’s remarks that multiculturalism has failed, as it was a concept that was thrust on her in its most brutal form when, aged eight, she was called a “nig-nog” by other children. Before then she had not viewed herself as any different from other children in her then predominantly white area of London’s East End.

Osho’s show AfroBlighty explored her relationship with her Nigerian background since that moment, from anglicising her name from Yewande to learning to celebrate her family’s culture, concluding that although her ethnicity didn’t solely define her, it was an important part of who she was - and that political correctness in its most effective form was nothing more complicated than “being nice” to each other.

Lots of food for thought there, but Osho presented much of it in a light-hearted manner, mixing it up with more generic memories from childhood, such as silly noise competitions with her siblings (“if you didn’t do that when you were a kid, you must have had toys”). 

However, the show gave an interesting insight to growing up as a black child in a mainly white area, such as the fact that rather than sticking together, there were tensions at her school between the West Indian kids and those from African families. These were probably not helped by some of the older generation, such as Osho’s own uncle, describing those from the West Indies as “slaves” - mind you, he was also convinced that Obi-Wan Kenobi must be Nigerian with a name like that, so being well informed was clearly not his strong point.

Osho rounded off her set with an unexpected and strong spoken word poem regarding her thoughts on multi-culturalism and diversity in Britain today. It proved that when she played to the strength of her convictions, Osho could really come up with some thought-provoking material, and insights which David Cameron himself could learn from. However, while her friendly interplay with the audience which warmed up the first half was pleasant enough - if a little predictable, and partly saved only by an audience member nearly as quick-witted as her - the more interesting stuff was too interspersed to really make the impact it deserved.